Different networks for providing communication services involving voice and/or data have been widely employed around the world, at least in the civilised or “industrial” parts. In the first place, dense areas such as cities, main highways and public areas in general with relatively high demands for communication, have obtained coverage by the establishment of network infrastructures, particularly for mobile communication.
Gradually, the network infrastructures have further expanded over the years to also cover some less crowded areas, referred to as “rural”. The incentive for building communication networks in such areas naturally depends on the demands and potential market for services versus the costs for obtaining coverage. Since the less crowded areas are typically also geographically large, a point is eventually reached when the market potential is too small to motivate the costs for building and operating a network with such large geographical coverage. Therefore, a complete coverage is not motivated, and this problem is particularly accentuated in poor rural regions of the world where people live in very primitive circumstances, having very little means to spend on telecommunication.
It is estimated that more than two thirds of the world population today have no access to either voice or data communication by living in such non-covered areas, e.g. in so-called developing countries. Obviously, these regions have an enormous future market potential if only the necessary investments could be made for establishing network coverage, with at least rudimentary services such as mobile communication of voice and short messages, and for teaching the inhabitants how to use communication equipment.
When multiple network operators are active basically in the same region, it has been common practice for them to establish and manage their own networks “in parallel” typically using their own proprietary equipment, services and functionality, although mostly based on standardised products and protocols. Thus, each operator is responsible for maintaining an entire network, more or less, albeit sometimes sharing certain basic equipment such as communication links, power supply, cabinets and antenna towers. In this way, each operator has full control of its services and resources, their coverage areas usually at least partly overlapping geographically, but must also alone bear its costs. An example of this situation is illustrated in FIG. 1, where three operators A, B and C (denoted as 100A, 100B and 100C) handle separate mobile networks 102A, 102B and 102C, respectively, serving subscribers 104 with mobile services. It should be noted that the geographical coverage of networks 102A, 102B and 102C are typically overlapping in the main.
However, it is a problem that huge investments in equipment as well as human resources are required for establishing a communication network in order to even begin serving a new region with various communication services. For example, a mobile network requires the installation of base stations with antennas, towers, transceivers, amplifiers, cooling equipment, etc., as well as switching and control nodes, cable links, routers, gateways, processors, databases, etc. Considerable work is also required to plan, test and tune the network, necessary to optimise its capacity and avoid interference, among other things. After installation, further expenses must go to operation and maintenance of the network. In addition, the political, legal and social situation in developing countries is often generally instable and difficult to assess.
Consequently, due to the considerable economical risk associated with such investments, network operators are inclined to avoid establishment in untapped markets of poor areas where the cost threshold is too high considering the initially weak market potential and general insecurity. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the economical risk and initial investment threshold for operators. It is also highly desirable to introduce at least rudimentary communication services to people living under primitive circumstances, in order to generally increase their quality of life.
In an overall perspective, the business of providing communication services should be profitable for all concerned, in order to create a sustainable economic growth in poor regions around the world. Once basic communication services becomes available, the economy growth will be facilitated and the demands for further capacity, coverage and functionality will gradually increase resulting in further growth, and so forth. A significant problem is therefore to overcome the initial hurdles and costs for operators to be able to start providing their services in areas lacking an infrastructure for telecommunication.